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Bitcoin Surpasses $11,000; Russia May Allow Crypto Trading

Bitcoin climbed to this year’s high to above $11,000 over the weekend and the coin has since then hovered around the $10,000 range. The total crypto market cap surpassed $320 billion on Monday in Asia.

Bitcoin once surged to $11,344.1 early this morning, but then it retreated 0.50% to $10,706 by 12:13 PM ET (04:13 GMT) on Monday.

Other major cryptocurrencies traded lower as well. Ethereum lost 3.43% to $303.88, XRP went down 5.31% to $0.45808, and Litecoin shed 4.42% to $135.63.

Cryptocurrency might be gaining support from the Russian government. According to the Russian Ministry of Finance, the ministry is considering allowing citizens to trade crypto coins.

Alexei Moiseyev, Deputy Minister of Finance, said this could be made in the coming bill on the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the country. This signifies a U-turn on the Russian government’s ban on the use of crypto assets as a means of payment.

On the other hand, Russia's parliament State Duma is expected to adopt the country’s major crypto bill “On Digital Financial Assets” (DFA) in two weeks’ time.

Meanwhile, Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization that aims to fight money laundering, is planning to tighten control over crypto exchanges to prevent these coins from being used in money laundering.

The crypto assets service providers must comply with anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism procedures, just like how traditional institutions do. They will also need to identify crypto funds senders and recipients, perform due diligence and develop risk-based programs.